The Beat

EA's Bryan Neider on EDS Broadband Gaming Podcast– Part 1

Bryan Neider, Vice President and COO of the EA Games Label, recently sat down with EDS, an HP company, and a panel of industry executives to discuss the current state of the business, challenges faced by publishers, theories on why players are flocking to online games, and more.

Along with Neider, panelists include:

David Christensen, former Vice President of Global Business Development for Sony Online Entertainment (SOE)

I think we're at a point in time where the speed and excitement of innovation has never been greater in interactive gaming. Whether you're making games for exclusively for the online experience or developing for the PSP, the iPhone, the DSi, or for traditional consoles, the Wii, the PS3 or the Xbox 360, the avenues for development and for consumers to have access to interactive games has never been better.

Neider on the challenges publishers face today in developing the right business model for online games:

There are so many different opportunities out there to reach consumers, and not every market is the same. Finding a model that has more universal appeal is a real challenge right now, because ... the models vary widely, and it is sometimes difficult for a development team to be able to incorporate all those different business models into the game design itself, so it's seamless in the game design. We're getting there, we're making progress, but right now, given the rapid expansion of online gaming, keeping up with consumer demand on that end of it is proving to be a little bit challenging.